Brother, husband of former beauty queen accused of $123 million fraud in US ({{commentsTotal}})

Estonian national Janek Hunt, brother of former Miss Estonia Kadri Uwaydah, and his brother-in-law, Munir Uwaydah are being indicted in the United States for alleged fraud in the amount of $123 million as well as the participation in a money laundering scheme, Californian daily The Press-Enterprise reported.

Eight employees of Inland Empire, a company running clinics and doctors' practices, including 44-year-old Janek Hunt, are under indictment. Hunt is being held at the Byrd Detention Center in Murrieta with bail set at $4.7 million, the daily said.

The defendants are accused of having run several sham clinics in Southern California where they issued exorbitantly priced prescriptions for drugs not required to treat patients, and for which the state was billed as well.

According to the prosecution, the defendants laundered their ill-gotten gains through various shell companies, disbursing funds to their cohorts in California, the Middle East and Europe, the paper wrote.

The indictments also name Munir Uwaydah, a 52-year-old Lebanese national married to Miss Estonia 1998, Kadri Uwaydah, the sister of Janek Hunt.

Mr Uwaydah has been on the radar of Californian authorities for several years. They are investigating ties of his businesses to Estonia, where he is suspected of having laundered the money gained in his various fraudulent schemes.